A few days ago, a video of "monkeys breaking into the village and hurting people" went viral on the Internet. The reporter verified and learned that the incident occurred in English Village, Hele Town, Wanning City, Hainan Province, and nine villagers were attacked and injured by monkeys and have been sent to the hospital for treatment.
Screenshot of the video
In the online video, a monkey broke into a villager's home, tried to capture a baby, and knocked the baby to the ground as the baby's parents drove him away. In the video, there are also monkeys crouching on the roof of the villagers' houses.
Screenshot of the video
On April 8, the reporter contacted Chen Yu, a member of the Propaganda Committee of Hele Town, Wanning City. He said that the first time the villagers saw monkeys in the village was around mid-March this year, and there were a total of four monkeys (two large and two small), none of which attacked people, "The villagers are very friendly to the monkeys on weekdays and will not hurt them."
Chen Yu said that on the afternoon of April 6, a monkey attack suddenly occurred in the village, and so far nine villagers have been injured in the English village, six of whom are minors, the youngest is only seven months old, and the injured villagers have been sent to the hospital for treatment.
Source: New Hainan client
Chen Yu revealed that as of April 8, three villagers were still under observation in the hospital, and the others had returned home. At present, the Hele town government has connected with the forestry department, and the next step will be to compensate the injured villagers with forestry insurance.
Source: New Hainan client
At present, the Hele town government and local villages have reported the situation and organized a patrol team of 100 people to patrol in shifts 24 hours a day. At the same time, through the village-level broadcasting system and going to the village, the villagers were publicized to enhance their awareness of preventing monkey attacks and self-protection.
The reporter learned that the local wildlife protection experts were also invited to the scene for guidance. According to expert analysis, the monkeys are wild macaques, and it is possible that they are from the surrounding area and have been expelled from the group. Two traps have been set up near the village to capture the monkeys and release them as appropriate, subject to conservation efforts.
Why do macaques repeatedly attack children?
In recent years, with the improvement of the natural environment, the contact between humans and monkeys has increased, and the incidents of wild monkeys attacking people have become more frequent. In October 2023, a shocking incident occurred in Liupanshui, Guizhou, where a 3-year-old child was captured by monkeys, but fortunately, the police searched in time and finally found the child in the dense mountain forest.
Experts say that on the one hand, this is related to the macaque's personality of "bullying the weak and fearing the hard", and in the face of strong adults, monkeys often choose to back down and dare not attack easily. Small children, on the other hand, are relatively weak and are more likely to be targeted by them. Macaques, on the other hand, may simply choose seemingly weak children as playmates out of curiosity or playfulness.
After all, macaques are wild animals with strong wild and animal instincts, and their behavior is often uncontrolled and can pose a certain threat to humans. Therefore, the local authorities need to pay attention to find the right balance between protecting wildlife and ensuring the normal life of human beings.
Source: "First Scene" Synthesis